(1) Technical Field
The invention relates to a film carriage assembly and method for moving a film platter in a safe and secure manner from a projection table to the assembly and between projection tables in a movie theatre.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
The trend in the movie theatre industry today is to build theaters which typically include eight or more individual screens or "houses" of varying capacity to give the movie going public a wider selection from which to choose. But there are other economic reasons for this trend. Movies which start out being very popular may wain with time. With multi-house theaters, these less popular movies can be moved from the larger houses to ones with smaller capacity. In this way, the "houses" with the largest capacity can be utilized to show the movies with the greatest popularity at any given time and thus efficiently use all of the houses in the theater. By careful shifting of the movies between the houses with varying capacity, movie theater owners can literally pack the theater.
The projection room in these modern multi-house theaters typically consists of a long relatively narrow corridor spanning all the individual houses and which is often crowded with equipment. For example, each house includes a projector and a projection table disposed remote from the projector and upon which is supported a film platter. The film platters are typically 52 1/2 inches in diameter upon which are supported six thousand feet of film. The film is wound about a film ring on the platter. During the showing of a movie, the film runs from the platter to the projector and then back to another platter which is also supported by the projection table as is commonly known in the art.
Presently in the prior art, when the film is to be moved from one house to another, the film is securely clamped to the ring and the film ring along with the film is slid off the platter and carried to another projection table located at the designated house. This can be a very tricky job and usually requires the careful attention of two professional projectionist. Even then, it is not uncommon that the film is dropped during transit. When this occurs, the clamps usually release and because of the nature of the material, the film becomes hopelessly entangled, knotted, broken and ultimately ruined. Each film can cost in excess of six thousand dollars and when dropped the show is literally over.
Still another trend in the industry is that professional projectionist are being phased out in an effort to cut costs. In their place, unskilled ushers and managers will run the projectors and ultimately move the film from house to house. This inevitably will result in more damage to film due to accidents in transit between the houses.
The subject invention solves these problems by including a film carriage assembly and method for moving and storing a film platter which may be operated by only one person and which significantly reduces the possibilities for damaging the film in any manner.